PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I give you the good news in the headline for a couple reasons.

One is that I have no credentials to add anything to a blizzard of information — some accurate, some inaccurate — that is swirling around the world nearly every moment.

Think of it this way – and this is meant as a neutral, not a pro-con, comment:

With social media so rampant these days, not to mention solid journalistic endeavors such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post with their on-line posts, we are bombarded with information about coronavirus.  In past threatened epidemics, we didn’t know as much – and, in some ways, that was a good thing.

The blizzard of information strikes me much like another blizzard – the information about snowstorms in our part of the world, the Northwest.  If you read or watch the “news about storms,” your perception is that it is snowing everywhere.  It’s not.

If current coronavirus reports focus on facts and figures, thus adding context to a troubling issue, good.  Further, if solid journalism adds information about what we, as individuals, can do about the virus, also good.

But, enough about coronavirus.

This is actually a post about the fact that the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering is open again.  It is one of three departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

FROM HOLMAN JENKINS IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IN A COLUMN ABOUT QUALITY JOURNALISM:  “One solution seems irresistible:  Stop calling cable news personalities ‘journalists.’  There’s a reason normal journalism doesn’t pay as well as TV journalism.  Real journalists are dependent on reality to furnish their material and reality just ain’t that exciting.”

Comment:  Jenkins is right on.  Real journalists practice real journalism.  Rampant social media these days ignores facts and context.  The goal is to inflame.

I say, quit paying so much attention.  Find quality journalism and allow that to influence how you think and react.

FROM WILLIAM GALSTON IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “In the past week, Joe Biden finally found his voice, summarizing his case simply and straightforwardly. As president, Biden says, he would focus his efforts on practical, achievable steps to improve people’s lives.  He would work to repair America’s tattered alliances and renew its moral authority in the world.  He would restore dignity and decency to the Oval Office.

“Most important, Biden would do everything in his power to heal our divided country. Republicans are Democrats’ opponents, not their enemies.  He believes that Trump has intimidated but not converted them.  He will treat them with respect, as potential partners in a common enterprise.

“Within his own party, he has been mocked for raising the possibility that a measure of bi-partisanship is still possible.  No matter.  As president, he would act as though it is and, by so doing, increase the possibility of its restoration.

“Bi-partisanship is essential, because little of what our country needs can be accomplished through executive orders and unilateral acts. We cannot possibly rebuild roads and bridges, or extend health insurance to all Americans, or reduce the burden of prescription drug costs, or reform the immigration system, unless Congress rediscovers the nearly lost art of legislation.”

Comment:  Most solid solutions to pressing public policy problems lie somewhere in the middle, not the right or left extremes.  We need someone in the Oval Office who will set out to lead us there through working with all sides to find reasonable solutions.

FROM DAN BALZ IN THE WASHINGTON POST:  “The Democrat contest (for president) has been transformed almost overnight from one with many candidates and no clear alternative to Bernie Sanders into a head-to-head battle that pits a populist insurgent preaching revolution and democratic socialism against an establishment-backed politician calling for modest change and civility and claiming greater electability against Trump.”

Comment:  Good summary from one of this country’s standout political reporters, Dan Balz.

And this from another Washington Post writer:

“After a head-spinning four days, a primary race that began with a historically large and diverse field — powered by a half-dozen women attempting to tap into an activated female electorate — has now boiled down to two white men in their late 70s who each have spent about a half-century running for political office.”

For my part, I don’t care about age.  I care about the ability to get the job of president done in way that honors the office, something which now does not occur.